Kidswap blog

As I sat reading the latest Consumer reports on '5 products not to buy for your baby', I could only imagine the firestorm that such recommendations from this well-reputed web site would ignite in moms across the lower mainland. Yes, recommendations by US sites don't always apply to Canadians, but it still gives you food for thought, and a few of them might really surprise you. Below is Consumer Reports 5 baby products to skip when purchasing for your little one:

Bedside and other co-sleeping devices
Although sleeping with a baby in an adult bed is a common practice among some cultures, it can be dangerous. The new bassinet-like devices designed to go in between parents or alongside an adult bed don’t necessarily make co-sleeping with a baby safer. One popular Simplicity bedside sleeper/bassinet was recalled after two babies died from strangling or suffocating when they slipped through an opening in the frame.

Currently, safety standards don’t exist for either co-sleepers or bedside sleepers. Until they do, we think the safest place for your baby to sleep is in a crib.

Baby bath seats
Each year, an average of 10 babies drown while using baby bath seats. Nearly all of those deaths occurred when a parent or caregiver left the baby unattended momentarily. The problem is that these seats, intended to make it easier to hold the baby in the bathtub, can give parents a false sense of security. It’s better to use an infant bathtub for bathing and never, even for a second, leave the baby beyond arm’s reach.

Sleep positioners
These devices are intended to keep infants on their back in a secure sleeping position. But the youngest infants, for whom these are designed, are not able to roll over from their backs on their own, which makes this product unnecessary. The soft foam in the sleep positioners can pose a suffocation hazard and our medical experts don’t recommend them.

Crib bumper pads
Designed to prevent bumps and bruises, crib bumpers can create their own hazards. One study found 27 cases of infant death involving bumper pads or similarly padded bassinets. Most of the deaths occurred when the infant became wedged between the bumper and another object or when the infant’s face was against the bumper.

And since bumper pads cannot be safety secured to cribs with solid end panels and should not be used with toddlers who can stand, we think it’s best to avoid them altogether.

Sling carriers
Over the past five years, at least four babies died and there have been many reports of serious injury associated with the use of sling-type carriers. The incidents include skull fractures, head injuries, contusions and abrasions. Most occurred when the child fell out of the sling. As slings grow in popularity, so do the number of serious injuries. No safety standards exist for slings. We think you should skip the sling and opt for other types of infant carriers, which have safer track records. (Image note: The CPSC recalled 100,000 Infantino slings in 2007.)

Yes, i agree that it is in your baby's best interest to protect them from every harm, but there are always pros and cons to every purchase you make for your children. Not unlike advice from Grandma (you don't need a crib, put that baby in your dresser drawer!), take everything with a grain of salt and make your own decisions.

Want to discuss this article or have a baby related question? Visit our forum today

Swapmeets have long been a favorite weekend activity in the lower mainland, and in the past few years swap meets that are specific to used baby and kid's stuff are becoming more and more popular. What exactly is a kid's swap meet? Put simply, it's a treasure trove of new and used baby or kid's items that can save you thousands of dollars on items that you need (or just want) for your kids.

When you walk into a kid's swap meet, you'll be met by table after table full of new or used baby clothing, toys, accessories such as strollers, car seats, and so much more. Most items are in bins, and you have to sort through the items in the bin to pick and choose the clothing that you want. Many people selling at a swap also bring in racks to hold their clothing.

If you are planning on selling at a swap meet, be sure to follow these quick tips for a successful day of sales:

1. Have spare change on hand. Most people don't always bring in the right amount of change, and you may find yourself scrambling.
2. Sort your clothing and mark it according to size and gender. You'll make it that much easier for your potential customer to buy it from you.
3. Bring a stack of plastic of paper bags for your customers to haul their purchases out with.

Only at a swap meet to buy? Put on your body armour and be prepared for some pushing and shoving. It can get very crowded when they open the doors, so if you have issues with personal space, wait until an hour or two after the swap has opened to browse through.
For a full listings of upcoming swap meets in BC and beyond, please click here to visit our Swapmeets listing pages. You can add your own upcoming swap, or view a list of swaps in your area.

Let's face it, the current economic crisis isn't going to disappear anytime soon. Just like everyone else, you need to find a way to pay for gas, feed your family, and put clothes on your kids.

If you think about it, it's really not fair that we have to give up everything because a bunch of Wall Street bankers got greedy. We could sit and sulk about it, or we can get smart about how we spend our money.

There are literally thousands of items online that you can buy for yourself and your kids that are new or nearly new. The purpose of Kidswap was to get that stuff out there, so you can save money on baby clothing, strollers, car seats, high chairs, shoes, and so much more. With categories for toddler and kids items up to size 12, how can you go wrong?

At the same time, you can sell toys or baby items you no longer use. You negotiate with the seller, and you get all of the money. It's free! We just want some company while we sell off everything our kids own and don't use (shhh, don't tell them!)

Heard enough? Sign up today!

Welcome back to the Kidswap blog!
I've been avoiding it myself. For the past year I have had little to nothing to report. Have you ever wanted to have a successful business?? So did I. After those two morons tried to run me into the ground and caused me to go into debt over the site, I lost interest and focus. It's been difficult to get back. However, a new and interesting thing has started to occur. The site traffic has tripled. I'm not sure how it happened (maybe because it's number one in a lot of relevant key words on google?) but it's nice to see. On a good day, it's over 1000 unique visitors, and the registrations are ongoing every day. It's a good thing for the moms who sell here, and it's nice that it's got the people to keep it going. The worst thing about getting scammed by a bunch of con artists? It wasn't losing the money, it was losing Kidswap. It was a dream for me, kind of like my Disney dream, and everyone needs dreams don't they?

Now you want to know my Disney dream, don't you?? I have always loved Disneyland. I cry when I get there, I cry when I leave, I feel happy just sitting on a bench on main street. It is my happy place. The trouble? It's expensive to fly there. When I was going to the Dragon's Den to pitch for $100,000, someone asked me what I would do if I got the money. Obviously, I would have worked on Kidswap. But for myself? I would have bought a seasons pass to Disney. That's the dream, as silly as it sounds. During a year that was nothing short of horrible, and a life that is still so stressful even on a day to day basis, I would like to be able to always access my happy place. AND, I'd always take my babies with me. For an example of our love of Disney, check this video out on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n174q90tAIM

I've been working on a book, but it's not a book on scamming mom anymore. I decided to write a chick lit book. I'm about 30 pages in, so it's starting to feel real to me. I like the characters, like the story, it seems like something I'd read. My only concern is that I don't have a feeling for the level of detail it needs and I just may suck at the inner chatting. Oh well, I'm trying anyway.

Thanks to all who stop by and take a peek. If you are a mom with a business, good luck to you. I hope you fulfill your business dreams!

It's May, which is surreal. May of last year was such a horrible, horrible time for me for many reasons. It's nice to look back and see that I survived.

Kidswap had a very successful swap meet in March of this year. I do plan on having others, I just haven't cemented a date for them yet. My issue is that I really need a bigger venue than West Langley Hall, and it seems as though it's going to be hard to find. West Langley Hall has 8 foot tables! How do you top that??

As far as the site is going, there are still a few changes to get it back to normal, but it's looking like a happier place now that the ads are free. After everything that went on in the past year with the law suit, etc., my only hope was that people would still use the site to buy and sell. There was a point in 2006 where they were thousands of valid ads online, and I would like to get it back to that point. I really just wanted it to be a popular place to make some money, and I still want that. If I take it offline, as I've often thought of doing, the only people that really win are those scammers who took advantage of me.

At this point in time, I'm looking for partners for Kidswap. If you own a business that you feel would be good for cross promotion, send me an email at swutke@kidswap.ca . I'd love to hear it.

I've been meaning to start another blog, and that day is finally here. I've been fixing up the site here and there as much as I can within my limited time constraints (meaning 3 kids, mounds of paper work, and 1 overly messy house), and it's starting to come back together again finally.

No one has really come out and asked me why the entire site changed the way it did (actually, it was the lack of change that was really the crux of the problem). I've actually been reluctant to talk about it. However, I don't think I'm doing any other mom out there with or without a business any favors but shutting up about the entire situation, regardless of whether I find the topic painful.

Let me start by saying that I asked my lawyer straight out if I could share my story with others. He said that there is absolutely no reason why I cannot. I did not sign a confidentiality agreement, and I could even share names if I choose to do so, as long as I'm telling the truth. I don't plan on sharing those for my own reasons, but it's nice to know I could if I wanted to.

Flashback to December of 2006. I contracted a company to redo Kidswap. I paid them a large sum of money. I had devised a business plan and a set of programming specs that would create a more user friendly site and take care of the issues that people had mentioned to me over the years. I was so excited, really, just thrilled about it all. I actually felt that the investment would be worth it in the long run, probably not unlike any other person with a business hopes for.

I searched for months, and finally found one company I was happy with. When I decided to go with them, I contracted a lawyer and asked her to look over the contract. She could see nothing wrong with it, and there was no mention of non-refundable deposit on there so I was happy as well.

I was dealing with a small company, two people really. One did web design and the other did project management. She mentioned she had her own set of programmers. The real kicker though, she was enthusiastic about Kidswap. She wanted to be my future partner, and given the 'perceived' outlook I had about their business, I was enthusiastic about having someone else with connections on board.

In 2006 I had a lot of reason to be optimistic. I had several people who had been interested in investing. I was invited to Toronto to pitch the site on CBC's Dragon's Den. I had a ton of media coverage starting way back in 2004. I was desperate to grow the business. Why did I choose this particular company? I suppose it was as simple as having someone that you clicked with. She seemed smart and as though she had been through something like this before. She said she had advertising contacts she would use when the time came, to develop advertising revenue. She was willing to invest money that was much needed as well. To top it all off, she was a mom who was pregnant at the time!! I had blinders on, and to this day I feel unbelievably stupid about the entire thing. It bothers me to even discuss it.

The projected time frame for the project was 8 to 10 weeks. The start date was December 6th.

So what happened?

Nothing. And that's the short story.

I waited all through December and January. At the end of January this person told me that the site was nearing completion and that I should take all ad credits and ad posting offline (translation: no one could sell on Kidswap) until the new site was up. Two weeks didn't seem like a long time, so I agreed. I sent out an email on January 26th indicating the site would be online in 2 weeks. Then I waited.

During this time I was on the phone with this lady for hours. She would call at all hours of the day and night, discussing different things with me about the site. Mostly she talked about her family and herself. I think that by far this is the thing that angers me the most. When I look back on those 5 months of my life, I spent most of the time on the phone and not enough time with my kids. I thought I was doing it for them, that it would all pay off and ultimately it would be worth it. I really wish it would have!

February saw a bunch of nitpicking and arguing between my future 'partners'. I asked to see a demo site, and nothing was produced. She involved herself in the forum to a point, and told me flat out that I would never have a successful business unless I stopped posting so much in the forum. I was told that they were planning a huge launch party for me downtown, to introduce Kidswap to some good contacts, but because I was so close to the Kidswap community they decided against the party. Doesn't that sound so stupid? I thought it was fairly dumb myself, but I did humour her. I told her I cut down on my posting, and I certainly did. It was very annoying.

I was told time and time again to tell no one about my plans for Kidswap, to not let anyone know what was going on. I kept my mouth shut.

Mid-February. I finally get a phone call telling me that I can see a demo site. This call came at 5 pm, mid-dinner creation and full on into 3 kids screaming. I was dying to see it though, so I went to the link she sent me.

It was a demo site alright, but not a demo site for Kidswap. I was being shown a demo site for a program called PHPprobid. It's auction software, and it's ultimately what I ended up purchasing to run Kidswap on when I ran out of money and options in May of last year.

After hearing her enthuse about the programming they had finished, all the wonderful registration options they had given me, and how they really went 'above and beyond' I decided to burst her bubble. I told her flat out that this was a demo for a program called PHPprobid, and that this was not anything remotely close to what I asked for or wanted. The backtracking was quite speedy. I was assured that this was only going to show me the functionality of my new site, this was not my actual site. When I asked why she said it was a demo program of Kidswap, she said she had to go.

To say I was shattered is an understatement. These people had a lot of my money and I was completely stuck.

Of course you go on hoping that eventually something will be produced that will be what you ask for. I certainly did. I held on through March (where of course I was blamed for delays from a credit card processing account) and into April.

I continued to call and send email asking where my site was, when it was going to be finished. Of course at this point the current site was still not open to posting, so I decided to start allowing free posting just to keep people happy. I was receiving a number of very nasty email saying "I've been waiting 2 1/2 months for your site to be finished and I have a pile of clothes to sell. What the hell are you doing?" I felt horrible, but there was nothing I could do.

March turned into April, and by then I was at the end of my rope. I had waited over the alloted time frame for the site, and I hadn't seen a thing besides some web design to prove there even was a site. The web design all came in 'skins', so it wasn't even viewable online. I could only see what they had planned in a photoshop document.

They maintained that a site would be produced, I kept asking to see one.

At the end of April I called the contract off. I asked for a full refund, and I was told by the female partner that I would and should receive one. She couldn't understand why her programmers wouldn't have completed the project, why they would have never shown me anything beyond that one program. I had no idea, I just wanted to be finished with it all. The male partner, however, had different ideas.

He argued with me to wait, that the site would be completed by May 15th. I said no way, that I had lost a lot of time and money already, and that there was no way to compensate for that. I was finished. He finally agreed to give back the money minus a payment for the work he produced.

Here is where it gets fun, and I'll give you the abbreviated version.

Two weeks went by as I waited for my money to be returned. Nothing happened. I sent countless emails asking for the money, nothing happened. I finally received a reply stating they were waiting for a refund from their programmers. Another week goes by and I contact a lawyer.

I have a fantastic lawyer. He helped me every single step of the way through the mess that ensued once they decided they simply were not going to give me back my money. We went to mediation in October. Pre-trial was set for January. They filed a countersuit stating they shouldn't be held responsible for the programmers work or lack thereof. I was just beaten down, literally I couldn't even function. I had been paying interest on a massive line of credit for over a year, and now it looked like the fight would never end.

Very abruptly, at a meeting with a judge I didn't even attend as it was supposed to be simply exchanging documents, the entire thing was settled. I am finally receiving a chunk of money back. Not all of it, but a large enough chunk that I agreed to it just to end it all.

Now I am starting to try to sort out the ruble. I bought that program they tried to sell me in the summer of 2007, and tried out auctions on the site. No one was really into them, least of all me. I didn't feel I could put Kidswap back together until this law suit was settled, and now that it finally is I've started to fix things as quickly as I can.

I have no idea what will happen in the future as far as Kidswap goes. I do know that there is a fantastic group of women in the forum who have never left, and that is probably the best part of the site. There are some exciting things planned for the next few months, and I'm starting to feel happy about the site again. I was so depressed last year about everything that I literally couldn't work on anything. It's nice to feel optimistic!

What did I learn from this experience, and what can I share with other moms who might be venturing into ecommerce and want to know what some of the pitfalls can be?

First and foremost, go into any ecommerce situation knowing this one golden rule: Anything worth developing or installing on your site has already been created by any number of thousands of people. You should not have to pay ridiculous sums of money for programs ready to install. For example, you want to run a site selling dog bowls. You have a general idea about what you want it to look like and how you want it to work. You contact several web design companies who quote you thousands of dollars for '5 basic html pages', 'shopping cart', 'Paypal integration'. You will be led to believe that you are getting custom programming, custom design work, custom everything. Honestly, you won't be. There are thousands of templating sites out there, thousands of free scripts and programs that could do exactly what you need and want. The cost? Free. Or next to nothing.
If you can't do it yourself, find someone that will work hourly to get your site up and running by utilizing the free stuff. The only paid professionals I can fully endorse right now is general graphic designers to do logos, and I know of at least one I can recommend who does great work.
Second, if you do feel the need to hire a web design firm, research, research, research. Ask for references. If they balk at giving out references, walk away.

I'm not the only one who was ever taken advantage of online. It's sad, because the money I spent on nothing could definitely have been better utilized taking care of my children. I feel horrible about that every single day.

I thought that sharing this with others would be the best avenue to try and get over the entire experience. I certainly don't want anyone to go through what I've had to go through in the past year.

Questions? Comments? Feel free.